Environmental Policy academics launch report on the Failure of Water Charges in Ireland

Today at UCD, Professor Peter Clinch and Anne Pender launched a report inquiring into why the domestic water charging regime in Ireland failed. Access to safe and reliable drinking water and wastewater services is essential for public health and well-being, but attitudes differ regarding how such services should be funded. In Ireland, the 2014 introduction of a domestic-sector consumption-based charging regime was met with public protests, leading eventually to the suspension of charges in 2016 and a subsequent recommendation by a parliamentary committee that they be abolished. Given that some form of domestic water charges exists in all EU countries and given that charges may still be required to comply with EU legislation, it is important to understand why the domestic-charging policy failed. This report argues that public opposition to domestic water charges was not generated by one single issue and presents five factors that it can be argued were influential.